Some years ago, back when I inquired into these matters for the first time, the motto / cri de guerre / whatever you'd call it of the British conservatives was, "we oppose change for change's sake".

This seemed to me very clever at the time, and hence, for I read it as "we oppose change for the reason that change unopposed is basically a lemon market, and it will engage into a vicious spiral towards the lowest common denominator [as aptly represented by Labour]".

This is a very good point, if you think about it. It directly states that the entire reason there even exist "reformists" in the first place is that some other people took care of the things that matter long enough so that they managed to accumulate into some sort of value the scumbags aim to now squander. Without such care being taken, there'd scarcely be any perceived need for "reform". It directly cleaves the intellectual base of the socialists, in that if indeed one aims to realise the stated goals of socialism, as improbable as such may in fact be, his best chances nevertheless are to be had... in the conservative camp.

As I was falling to sleep tonight, a sad ugly thought occurred to me. You see... my reading's not required by the phrase in question. In fact, there's an alternative available : "we oppose the kind of change that is merely change for its own sake", or in other words "we aim to avoid furious activity as a cover for impotence". You know, like Obama's change, like the soviet shuffles, like bureaucratic reform and corporate shake-ups. The revolving door of idiocy where Iuri, the ex minister of defense, is for his sins punished to lead the main defense contractor whereas Ivan, the ex CEO of the defense contractor, is for his sins punished to lead the defense ministry.

This much more banal, much more vulgar and in its banal vulgarity much more adequate and worldly interpretation is in all likelihood the correct one, huh. Obviously to anyone but yours truly, too intelligent at the time to realise how naive intelligence tends to be. And the world is suddenly a much smaller place. Again.

PS. This is what growing old is, by the way : the unyielding, ever-expanding, bitterly sad realisation that the people who came before you weren't as much idiots in the general sense, but moreover utter idiots in the "scraped off someone's boot after a trip through swampland" sense.

Oh, I know, wet dreams can be so confusing... Opposing change is obviously not synonymous with doing nothing, which is why reinstating the status quo has the peculiar effect of changing it. Conservatives are not truly worthy of their name, because by merely curbing change they are in fact strenghtening its course. Well, in the end who can pledge allegiance to the unknown?